Effect of the number of averaged responses in transient evoked otoacousticemissions on the results of neonatal hearing screening

IThis study examined the effect of the number of accepted responses in tran sient evoked otoacoustic emissions-on the results of neonatal hearing scree ning programmes. The ILO88 Otodynamics Analyzer Quickscreen programme was u sed for all testing, and a three-stage procedure was adopted by averaging 2 0, 30, and 260 low-noise samples in total. The results were recorded after each stage of the testing in those cases in which, after the first 20 accep ted responses, the "pass" criteria were met. Under these circumstances, 117 ears were included in the study from a total number of 334 screened ears. It was concluded that 20 averaged quiet responses are adequate for screened newborn babies to pass the test if the conditions of the "pass" criteria a re fulfilled at this stage. In the rest of the newborn babies,testing shoul d be continued using a larger number of clicks. For diagnostic ana clinical purposes, the full 260 quiet samples must be used since the results indica ted statistically better scores in response and reproducibility measures af ter the 260 averaged responses.